Thanks For The Confirmation

Think Progress:  During the long fight to end apartheid in the American South, defenders of segregation would frequently dismiss civil rights workers as nothing more than “outside agitators” intruding on communities that did not want them. Nearly 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, little appears to have changed in the Georgia governor’s mansion. In response to a request to support students in Wilcox County, Georgia seeking to integrate their high school’s still-segregated prom, Gov. Nathan Deal (R-GA)’s office channeled the spirit of George Wallace:

Gov. Nathan Deal won’t take sides in the controversy over some Wilcox County teens’ efforts to integrate their prom.

By email, his spokesman, Brian Robinson, said Deal would have no response to a liberal group’s call for state officials, including the governor to speak out.

He wrote, “This is a leftist front group for the state Democratic party and we’re not going to lend a hand to their silly publicity stunt.”

Better Georgia asked Deal and others “to publicly support the students of Wilcox County who are fighting to end a ‘separate-but-equal’ high school prom.”

While we wouldn't call  desegregation efforts - then or now - a publicity stunt (we would actually file that under 'basic human rights'), Deal is absolutely correct that it's progressives who are fighting his conservative movement in this struggle.  And it's always been that way.  Liberals freed the slaves, got women the right to vote, fought for the worker rights and protections that created the American middle class, and continue to lead the struggle against segregation, racism, and exploitation.  And conservatives continue to fight them every step of the way.  And while history is clear on these matters, it's always nice to have a conservative come along every once in a while and publicly agree.